Who in Group 2 could melt and give Kwak, Gilles, or Lacoste to be in the Final Group 1? It's one to melt and one to move up.

Apparently Kwak had a clean run through of her SP today, landed the lutz combo and everything. Her spins get high levels and good GOE, so if she's clean I could see her fairing like Bingwa did last week in China, maybe score in the low 50s. Depending on what others do, that might get her into the final warmup.

Joshi is prone to downgrades and IIRC last week she had a clean short and scored 48, so she's not a gaurantee for the final warmup group even if she's clean.

Gede can be all over the place and at NHK she popped her axel and stepped out of her 3t (which was supposed to be in combination) and scored 44. She could also probably score close to 60 if she's clean though, so we'll have to wait and see with her.

Zhang apparently hasn't been skating well in practice, and at NHK even when she did a good SP her score was only like 50.

If Lacoste does 3lo-3lo she can likely get a good score, like high 50s. At Canada she went for the combo but stepped out and URed the 2nd jump, but her score was still 55 (maybe due to hometown bonus though).

If Gilles can have a repeat of her SP performance at TEB last season where she scored almost 59 points, then she should be able to easily make the final group. Consistency doesn't seem to be her friend though so I'm not holding my breath.

Viktoria is probably better than Joshi when they both skate their best, so if she goes clean she could also make the final group.

So basically, if Gede falters and Joshi and Caroline are just a little off, I think potentially 3 of Lacoste, Kwak, V. Helgesson and Gilles could make the final warmup group, if they are clean.

Apparently Kwak had a clean run through of her SP today, landed the lutz combo and everything. Her spins get high levels and good GOE, so if she's clean I could see her fairing like Bingwa did last week in China, maybe score in the low 50s. Depending on what others do, that might get her into the final warmup.

Joshi is prone to downgrades and IIRC last week she had a clean short and scored 48, so she's not a gaurantee for the final warmup group even if she's clean.

Gede can be all over the place and at NHK she popped her axel and stepped out of her 3t (which was supposed to be in combination) and scored 44. She could also probably score close to 60 if she's clean though, so we'll have to wait and see with her.

Zhang apparently hasn't been skating well in practice, and at NHK even when she did a good SP her score was only like 50.

If Lacoste does 3lo-3lo she can likely get a good score, like high 50s. At Canada she went for the combo but stepped out and URed the 2nd jump, but her score was still 55 (maybe due to hometown bonus though).

If Gilles can have a repeat of her SP performance at TEB last season where she scored almost 59 points, then she should be able to easily make the final group. Consistency doesn't seem to be her friend though so I'm not holding my breath.

Viktoria is probably better than Joshi when they both skate their best, so if she goes clean she could also make the final group.

So basically, if Gede falters and Joshi and Caroline are just a little off, I think potentially 3 of Lacoste, Kwak, V. Helgesson and Gilles could make the final warmup group, if they are clean.

Lacoste will be in IF she does 3Lo-3Lo; she's still relatively inconsistent so I'm not sure what could happen (her scores were also slightly inflated at Skate Canada)

Gilles...no.

Kwak is a question mark. I personally think she'll be absolutely exhausted, but if she can get past the lutz barrier, she'll get at least a decent score (and falling less will help her PCS immensely)

I think Gedevanishvili will be the one to wilt, just way too inconsistent. Helgesson is relatively solid, but wouldn't (and shouldn't) score above a solid Lacoste or Kwak IMO. Zhang, I don't know. I just would like her to skate well, and her NHK score was due to not getting ANY +GOE on her jumps and getting a level 1 on the combo spin. Who knows? A competitor like her could skate badly in practice but really light it up during competition.

Lacoste will be in IF she does 3Lo-3Lo; she's still relatively inconsistent so I'm not sure what could happen (her scores were also slightly inflated at Skate Canada)

Gilles...no.

Kwak is a question mark. I personally think she'll be absolutely exhausted, but if she can get past the lutz barrier, she'll get at least a decent score (and falling less will help her PCS immensely)

I think Gedevanishvili will be the one to wilt, just way too inconsistent. Helgesson is relatively solid, but wouldn't (and shouldn't) score above a solid Lacoste or Kwak IMO. Zhang, I don't know. I just would like her to skate well, and her NHK score was due to not getting ANY +GOE on her jumps and getting a level 1 on the combo spin. Who knows? A competitor like her could skate badly in practice but really light it up during competition.

I'm pretty much in agreement. If Gede does her monster lutz and a 3t-3t combo though she could put up a big score, you just never know with her, usually her PCS are decently good though.

Lacoste sometimes has trouble with her flip and lutz. Her 3lo is great so even if she only did 3lo-2lo, if she lands everything else, she should be able to make the final group.

I'm with you about Kwak being exhausted, but you never know with her, she wasn't skating well on the JGP last season and then came out of nowhere to win the Olympic Qualifiers and skate really well at 4CC and the Olympics. Also when she lands the 3lz it's a pretty nice jump for her, outside edge takeoff and airy.

Gilles I'm sort of with you on. But she does have a 3t-3t combo planned so if she lands it then she'll probably get a good score, especially where this event is in the US.

I don't care much for either Helgesson but they are both pretty good technical skaters when they are on. Joshi may be exhausted where she competed in China last week though.

Zhang. Who knows. She's not going to get +GOE on her 3lo or 2a if they look like what they did at NHK, I thought her 3f there was nice but maybe that was just compared to her old 3f. Her layback spin will probably get +2s and 3s though so if she can just land the jumps she'll have a good shot, and being American should help.

I don't think Gilles will be in the final group. She seems to be skating poorly at the start of this season.

Apparently she skates really well in practice though. When she lands her jumps they are very nice, and she's a pretty well rounded skater. I'm not counting her out just yet, she's pretty impressive when she's "on" and don't forget we're in America!

Apparently she skates really well in practice though. When she lands her jumps they are very nice, and she's a pretty well rounded skater. I'm not counting her out just yet, she's pretty impressive when she's "on" and don't forget we're in America!

She's just so SLOW, though-- I believe slowest of all the Tom Z skaters, and that's saying something...

She's not the only slow one in the competion, and btw, slow speed makes jumping much more difficult.

I was noticing that. In the practice clip where they showed Rachael, Alexe, Min-Jung, and Caroline, Min-Jung looked speedy in comparison to the others, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't skate that fast. At least, last season she didn't.